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CZ39 

THE INDICATIONS 



A DIVINE PURPOSE 



OUR COUNTRY 



MODEL CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC. 



A, DISCOUHSIi: 

DELIVERED ON* THE DAY OF 

ANNUAL THANKSGIVING, 

NOVEMBER SOth, 1S5J:., 

BY 

SHERMAN B. CANFIELD, 

PASTOK OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHUBCn, IN SYRACUSE, 



SYRACUSE: 

.STEAJI POWER PRESS OF T. S. TRUAIR, DAILY JOURNAL OFFICI 
1855 



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SYRACUSE, December 5, 1854 

Kev. s. b. canpield, 

Dear Sir: — ■ 
Having had the pleasure of listening to the excellent sermon 
delivered by you in this city on Thanksgiving day, (30th ult.) we beg leave 
to solicit a copy for publication. 

We think the particular subject discussed by you in that discourse, one 
of much public importance and that it was treated in a very candid, able 
and judioious manner. 

Not only those who heard it will be glad to peruse and preserve it for 
future reference, but we doubt not, it will be highly useful and instructive 
to others. 

With great respect^ your friends and ob't serv'ts, 

JAMES R. LAWRENCE, ALBERT A. HUDSON, 

M. D. BURNET, H. W. VAN BUREN, 

ALLEN MUNROE, HENRY A. DILLAYE, 

RUSSELL HEBBARD, D. P. WOOD, 

ROBERT GERE^ T. B. FITCH, 

HENRY GIFFORD, E. B. WICKES, 

H. RHOADES, A. WESTCOTT. 



SYRACUSE, Dec. 12th, 1854. 
To Messrs. James R. Lawrence, Moses D. Burnet, Allen Munroe, Russell Heb- 
BARD, Robert Gere, Henry Gifford, H. Rhoades, jMSbert A. Hudson, H. W. 
Van Buuen, Henry A. Dillaye, D. P. Wood, T. B. Rtch, E. B. Wickes, and 
A. Westcott : 

Oentleinen — 

In complying with your request of pi copy of my Thanksgiving 
Sermon for publication, I leave the question ol the fitness of the Discourse, 
for su-ch nn unexpected honor, entirely to your own judgment. 

Yours respectfu'ly, 

S. B. CANFIELD, 



DISCOURSE, 



Acts xvii, 26. — "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for 

TO DWELL ON ALL THE FACE OF THE EARTH ; AND HATH DETERMINED THE TIMES 
BEFORE APPOINTED, AND THE BOUNDS OF THEIR HABITATION." 

The apostle of tlie Gentiles, tlius expounding the first 
principles of Religion to tlie Athenians on Mars^ Hill, 
is a study for lovers of the moral-sublime. The man 
in the light of his antecedents and of his present mis- 
sion, uttering such truths, in such a place and before 
such an audience, thrills us with the grandeur of a pur- 
pose of life kindled by the breath of Love Incarnate, 
of a courage born of faith looking to the Invisible, of a 
beauty of holiness rising far above the sphere of un- 
spiritualized taste. 

Though Athens strove no more for naval and milita- 
ry supremacy as when led by the counsels of Themis- 
tocles and Pericles, and struggled no longer for national 
independence as when awakened by the thunders of 



6 GOD S PURPOSE IX OUE COUNTRY. 

Demostlienes, yet, even while croucliing to Imperial 
Kome, slie retained a sway more august than the do- 
minion of arms. She was the metropolis of the wide 
domain of the Greek civilization. To her pertained the 
glory of poets, orators, philosophers and historian-^, 
whose names, to all time, were to be stars in the firma- 
ment of literature ; and the honor — as unevangelized 
men counted honor — of a most credulous and graceful 
devotion to idols ; and of her were the splendid memo- 
rials of that art which had given the semblance of 
life to a multitude of the dead who shone forth on ev- 
ery hand in forms of beauty and majesty, like "children 
of the resurrection." The radiant point of an aesthetic 
and fascinating superstition, she was the great univer- 
sity-city of Gentilism, — the favorite resort of Greeks 
and Romans who sought to learn what the most cele- 
brated instructors could teach. 

In that city how strange a visitant was Paul ! Xot 
to finish his education, not to gaze at statues, pictures 
and temples, not to consult far-famed teachers, was he 
there. Proficient in the literature of the Greeks, and 
long a pupil of Gamaliel — the great doctor of the He- 
brew Institutes — he did indeed appreciate mental cul- 
ture and discipline in every form of excellence. But 
a splendor from heaven, a light above the brightness 
of the sun, had shone upon him ; a Greater than all the 
philosophers and Rabbis had become his teacher ; and 
rapt to the third heaven, he had beheld a city more 
grand and enduring than Athens, a temple of more 
imposing magnificence and beauty than the Parthenon 
and living forms more glorious than Grecian genius ev- 



GOD S rURPOSE IN OUK COUNTRY. 



er conceived. Tlius graduated amid tlie lights of tlie 
Paradise of G-od and conversant witli tlie citizenship of 
heaven, he had come through a wide circle of nations, 
to the city where thirty-thousand gods were adored; 
where the world was thought to be parcelled out into 
sections ruled — if by Dlvdne power at all — by local 
deities, and peopled by distinct races of men tracing 
their lineage to separate sources ; and where Socrates 
had perished for attempting a religious reform far short 
of " turning the world upside down." The discourse 
of which the text is a very significant part, is remark- 
able for its combination of courteousness of manner, 
felicity of argument and boldness of aim. JMighty in 
every word with vital truth, it was full of hits dealt 
as by the hand of the " Unknown God," smiting now 
the follies of the superstitious crowd and anon the im- 
pious dogmas of the Epicureans and the Stoics. 
Glancing over a " city full of idols" the apostle pro- 
claimed the Unity of God and the absurdity of image- 
worship. Beholding here the temple of Mars, there 
the Parthenon, and far and near structures deemed the 
abodes of divinities, he said : " The Lord of heaven 
and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands." 
In the presence of philosophers who under a very thin 
guise of polytheism taught a virtual atheism or panthe- 
ism, invoh'ing a denial of the existence or of the person- 
ality of the Deity and therefore of his providential and 
moral government, he declared the ceaseless, designed 
])eneficence, control and authority of the omnipresent 
Provider and almighty Ruler, who " giveth to all life 
and breath and all things," and " hath appointed a 



8 god's PCErosE in our couktry. 

(lay in tlie wliicli lie will judge the world in rigliteons- 
ness." And in tlie hearing of men who claimed for the 
Athenians an origin distinct from the rest of the race, 
and who ignored the hand of the Most High in order- 
ing the times and places of families and peoples, he 
emphatically asserted 

The Unity of tue Hu^ian Species ; 

and 

The Peovidence of God in appointing to the na- 
tions OF THE EAIITII SEYEKALLY, THE EEAS OF THEIli 
.existence and the bounds of their HABITATION. 

These two truths I propose to view, first for a mo- 
ment separately, and then in connection, taking their 
blended lights as a guide in considering 

The Indications of God's Purpose in respect to 
OUR Country. 

The afftrmation that God " hath made of one blood 
all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth," 
is in accordance with the historical fact that the Cre- 
ator has caused " all nations of men," on whatsoever 
part of " the face of the earth," to descend from Adam 
and has made all the individuals thereof after the men- 
tal and physical likeness of their progenitor. It thus 
vindicates the propriety of the law of reciprocal ob- 
ligation laid upon all men everywhere — of the Great 
Commandment " Thon shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self," with the direction of every caviller to the parable 
of the Good Samaritan for the meanins: of the word 



god's rURPOSE IN OUR COUNTRY. 9 

neighbor — of the Golden Kule uniting tlie highest and 
the lowest, and repressing arrogance by making its 
very exorbitance the measure of duty to others. And 
it thus sanctions the leading principle in the Declara- 
tion of American Independence — the principle of the 
substantial equality of all men and of their natural right 
to liberty. 

This princi})le, at the foundation of our temple of 
freedom and engraven on its front, is opposed to UN- 
philanthropic PATRIOTISM. 

# 

The love of liberty which distinguished the Atheni- 
ans in the days of their strongest opposition to aristoc- 
racy and monarchy, had no vitalizing, expansive power. 
It had no eye to view Grod as the one Father of Greeks 
and Barbarians, and the nations of the earth as made to 
be one brotherhood. Its appropriate motto would 
have Ijeen, not freedom for all, but "Liberty for the 
Greeks and especially for the Athenians." 

This proud, self-isolating spirit, (which by the bye, 
did not die with the people just named) is as unlike 
the free spirit inculcated in the word of God, as a near- 
sighted sectionalism to the broadest philanthropy, 
or Satan to Christ. To love one's country for the sake 
of God and the world, endeavoring to render its pow- 
er, wealth, intelligence and moral greatness honcrary 
to the Father of Lights and beneficial to mankind, is 
a virtue. But there is a love of country which is nar- 
row in its sympathies and mean in its ends, a mere ex- 
pansion of selfishness, egotism pluralized and intensified. 
Under its maliG-n influence 



10 god's PUKrOSE IN OUK COUNTRY. 

"Lands intersected by a narrow frith 
Abhor each other. JMoiintains interposed 
Make enemies of nations who had else 
Like kindred drops been mingled into one." 

This Idnd of patriotism lias been mucli more com- 
mon than the other. It is conQ-enial to the lieart of 
fallen man. From it Iiave come wars ; and from wars, 
the exaltation and tyranny of tlie few and tlie depres- 
sion and servitnde of the many. 

The great truth that God " hath made of one Ijlood 
all nations of men" strikes at the root of this vile plant 
which the heavenly Father never planted, and puts an 
extinguisher on the ilame of a selfish and spurious love 
of liberty. 

The most truly republican book ever written is tlie 
Bil)le. By tracing the descent of all nations to the 
same source, and declaring that they possess a common 
nature, made after the similitude of God and but little 
low^er than the angels, and that they are alike involved 
in the ruins of the fall and invited to share without 
distinction of w^ealth, birtk or country, in the transcen- 
dent privileges of sonship and heirship to the Most 
High, it shows that the j^retensions of all oppressoi-s 
prating of right divine^ are both absurd and impious. 

It is plain that the Book of Ijooks is not, as some 
liave supposed, monarchical in its principles and spirit. 
It does, indeed, enjoin sulgection to " the powers that 
be," and discountenances, (as our Declaration of Indepen- 
dence also does,) attempts, for light and transient cau- 
ses, to effect a change of government by force. But it 



gob's rUEPOSE IN OUR COUNTRY. 11 

does not deny the right of revolution. Wlien the peo- 
ple of any country for good reasons overturn one gov- 
ernment and set up another, the very fact evinces that 
tlie former government was not a true exponent of 
the actual " powers" of that country. For example, 
the real powers in England in 1649 were not with 
Charles the First but with the men who called him 
to account for his crimes; and when the Royalists 
said : " Men ought to be subject to the higher pow- 
ers: the powers that be are ordained of God," the 
advocates of the Commonwealth very properly re- 
plied, " Be subject to them then ; and adhere no lon- 
ger to the fallen house of Stewart." So in our own 
country in 1776, the powers were not in the repre- 
sentatives of George the Third and the Tories, but 
in the people who declared their independence and 
maintained it. It is the powers that be, which are 
ordained of God, — not shadows — not names whose 
significance has passed away. 

If we are commanded to honor the king, so are 
we to "honor all men,"* — all at least to whom, un- 
der whatever title, the legislative, the judicial and 
the executive powers of civil government are en- 
trusted. It is evident that the word rendered king, 
was used in this instance as in some others, in the 
sense of supreme magistrate or highest civil ruler, 
without reference to his specific title or mode of 
appointment to office. For over those strangers 
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, 
Proconsular Asia and Bithynia, there was no single 

* I Pet, ii, 17. 



12 god's purpose dj our country. 

person then reigning under the name of king. That 
title, abhorred by the Romans from the days of the 
Tarquins, had never been rasmned by their chief 
magistrates. The emperors, however despotic in 
fact, professed to derive their authority from the 
people. Most of the forms of the Commonwealth 
were still retained ; and Tacitus tells us that it was 
the custom of the emperors to worship the people 
convened in the Circus; and that even Nero con- 
formed to the usage. Whilst these facts prove that 
men who make a god of the people, have sometimes a 
very strange way of showing their adoring love, they 
demonstrat3 that the words of the apostle under re- 
view, are a bad proof-text for jure divino royalism. 
The sway of the Caesars was an audacious dema- 
gogy, a thing farthest possible from an authority 
claimed as from God without regard to the will of 
the governed. According to the Scriptures, civil 
government, in its substance, is of God ; in its form, 
of men. The apostle Peter styles kings and depu- 
ties human ordinances. When the people of Israel 
had determined to have a king, the prophet Samuel 
was commanded by Jehovah to protest against the 
act as a great sin ; and a violent thunder-storm was 
miraculously sent to authenticate the protest. 

Nor does the Bible commend Slavery. It does 
indeed direct servants to be obedient to their mas- 
ters; but this no more authorizes a person to treat 
his fellow-men as chattels, than our Lord's precept 
" whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also," licenses the ruffian to 



god's fuepose in our country, 13 

strike the blow.* Meek submission to wrong for 
Christ's sake, is one thing; the infliction of the 
wrong though with quotation of Scripture about the 
sufferer's duty to submit, is quite another. God en- 
joins it upon masters to render to their servants " that 
which is just and equal"; and it is as clear as the 
light of noonday that when all masters shall obey 
this precept, practicing the Golden Rule, and cor- 
dially remembering that the Creator hath made of 
one blood all nations of men, there will not be 
enough left of slavery to be a very peculiar or a 
very hurtful institution. 

'*' The word (doulos) rendered servant does not always mean Slave, i. o. 
"" one [says the Louisiana Civ. Code, Art. 35] who is in the power of his 
master ; [so that] the master may sell him. dispose of his peraov., his indus- 
try and his labor ; [so that] he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire 
anything but what must belong to his master." 

Paul, James, Peter, Jude, each a freeman of the Lord, gtyled himself a 
servant (doulos) of Jesus Chri.-st- Rom, i, 1; James, i, 1 ; 2 Pet, i, 1 , 
Jude, 1. 

How slight a degree of subjection the word sometimes denotes is evident 
from 1 Ki., xii, 7, Sept. The old men said to King Piehoboam, " If thou 
wilt be a servant (doulos) unto this people this day, and wilt serve them 
and answer them and speak good words to them, then will they be thy 
servants (douloi) forever." 

Thus Rehoboam would be the servant (doulos) of bis own subjects, by 
merely " answering them and speuking good words to them," i. e. by light 
ening their burdens; and they (treated as Israelites deserved) would be 
his servants (douloi) by not casting off entirely his government, 

Like our word servant, doxilos has a very wide range of signification. 

Nor was a master (kurios) of course a slaveholder. " Sarah obeyed 
Abraham calling him "kurion." 1 Pet., iii, 6. As doulos sometimes ex- 
presses but a slight degree of subjection, so hurios sometimes implies but 
a slight degree of control. 

I via happy in being able to say that our GenerrJ Assembly of the Pres- 
byterian Church has borne a uniform -md decided testimony against the 



1-i god's purpose IN" OUE COUNTRT. 

The theory of American freedom was derived 
from the word of God. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, though drawn up by Mr. Jefferson in the 
summer of 1776, contains no great principles which 
had not long been familiar and dear to Christians, 
and especially to Calvinistic Christians, from the 
North to the South. During the two preceding cen- 
turies those principles had been enunciated by Ge- 
nevan and Puritan reformers ; and in substance they 
had severally been sounded out in various parts of 
our country and been adopted in town meetings and 
county conventions, before they were combined and 
set forth in the grand National Declaration.* Then 

system of American Slavery as defined in the laws of the slaveholding 
States ; — more than this, that during the whole of the protracted discussion 
of tlie subject in 1850, not a single member even from the South advocated 
or attempted to justify slavery as described in those laws. It was some- 
thing else than slavery thus defined, that any one tried to defend. A 
member of the Assemply from Va., (discarding the thing known to codes, 
statutes and civil courts,) defined slavery to be " the investing of one per- 
son with power over another without his consent." The Bible and the 
laws of the Free States sanction this'; for they sanction " the investing" 
of a father " with power over" his child without the latter's " consent ;" 
the schoolmaster " with power over' his pupil, without the pupil's " con« 
sent," &c., &c. &c. 

Ciood men sometimes deceive themselves by showing that Scripture 
sanctions one thing, and then transferring that sanction to something else 
of the same name but of a very different nature. 

* Those who would study the Genesis of American Independence, arc 
referred to the Articles in Milton's Prose Works, in defence of the execu* 
tion of Charles I, particularly the treatise entitled "The Tenure of Kings 
and Magistrates," which, besides his own noble thoughts, contains many 
quotations in point, from the writings of Evangelical reformers; to Ban- 
croft's History of the U. S., especially Vol. I, Chap.'s VIII, IX, X, and 
Vol. 11, Chap. XVIII; and to De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," 
particularly Chap. II. 



god's purpose in our country. 15 

at length were admirably wrought together the gold- 
en particles which high-souled, devout men had 
gathered in hope, from the sands of that " river the 
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." 
Whilst the Bible sets forth and establishes on eter- 
nal rock, the rights of man, it enforces their obser- 
vance by the most impressive sanctions and the 
most moving persuasives. And no other book so 
much as this, expands the minds and purifies the 
hearts of men so as to qualify them for freedom. 

Taking along this first truth of the text, 

THAT GOD IN THE BIBLE IS THE PATRON OF LIBERTY, 

let US now consider the other great truth associated 
with it: 

THAT THE MOST HIGH DETERMINES THE TIMES BEFORE 

APPOINTED TO NATIONS AND THE BOUNDS 

OF THEIR HABITATION. 

Each nation's " development in space and time," 
to speak in the style of Neander, " is fixed by God's 
all-governing wisdom." We are told in the Old 
Testament that " the Most High divided to the na- 
tions their inheritance when he separated the sons 
of Adam." Indeed, throughout the word of God, 
the exaltation and depression of nations, their eras 
and locations, are so uniformly ascribed to Divine 
Providence that further quotation is needless. 



16 god's purpose IX OUR COUNTKY. 

The rise of the Medo-Persian,the Macedo-Grecian 
and the Roman empires, was not only pre-determined 
but foreshown. Yet on what striking providences 
was the existence of each of those empires to depend. 
Had Cyrus never been born or had he died in his 
first battle, when so many others fell, where would 
have been the kingdom of the Medes and Persians ? 
What if Alexander the Great had perished at the 
Granicus instead of marvellously escaping death '? 
But he was not to fall there. In the plan of the 
Controller of events his empire had been mapped 
out, the time to take possession had come and his 
w^ork was not yet done. And how many hair-breadth 
escapes had Rome. Once the question of " to be 
or not to be" for that mighty commonwealth, whose 
ultimate terribleness and grandeur tasked the powers 
of prophetic description, and whose influence is even 
noAV felt in many ways throughout the civilized 
world, turned on an event almost too trifling to be 
named — the cackling of a goose. The forthcoming 
too of Mohammedanism, also a subject of prophecy, 
ages before its baleful advent — yes, of that strange 
empire of scimetar and Koran, whose times were to 
be so many centuries, and whose habitation so large 
and fair a portion of the earth, once hung on the 
flight of a bird. A thousand years before the fall 
of the Roman Empire of the West, it was announc- 
ed that ten kingdoms were to take its place. 
At the time of this announcement the forefath- 
ers of those who were to compose the ten king- 
doms were but feeble and scattered tribes on the 



god's rURPOSE IN OUR COUNTRY. l7 

great plateau of Central and Nortliern Asia, and 
North-Eastern Europe. Wliat led these tribes, in- 
creased as they were in the intervening centuries, and 
ilowing down upon the provinces of Western and 
Southern Europe, to take their positions in the num- 
ber foretold in the j)rophecy ? For ages they had 
moved hither and thither like the billows on an agita- 
ted ocean ; and they poured themselves with barbarous 
violence upon the territories of the falling Empire ; 
and yet they came to their places on the map of Eu- 
rope according to the times before aj^pointed, and 
within bounds of habitation jDreviously set. Even 
from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
pire, it is easy to perceive that, on several occa- 
sions, the frustration of that plan was prevented only 
by events which to human foresight, were very im- 
probable — by Providential interpositions which are 
now very distinct to all who are willing to see God in 
the history of a world made for his own glory ; — for 
examjjle, at one time by rolhng back the tide of At- 
tila's victories ; at another, by raising up Charles 
Martel, with genius and power, to defeat the hitherto 
invincible Saracens, when from the conquest of West- 
ern Asia, Northern Africa, Spain, and South- Western 
France, they seemed al)out to sweep like a resistless 
whirlwind across trembling Europe. 

The t-\YO great truths that the God of the Bible is 
the Friend of true liberty, and also the Arbiter of the 
times and bounds of nations, should incite us to recog- 
nise His providence, so visible in the history of our 
own country. 



18 god's purpose in our country. 

On tills day of Tllanksgi^dug to tlie Most High for 
blessings such as no other nation enjoys, it 1)ecomes us 
to consider well the source of our free institutions, 
and the cause of our national prosperity. Shall we in 
our hearts give the glory to men ? Shall we, like the 
Epicureans, deem it beneath the dignity or inconsistent 
with the pleasure of the Deity to maintain a provi- 
dential government in this world ? Or like the Stoics 
resolve the powers of the Father of Lights, into 
laws of N'ature or Fate, incompatible with His control 
over events ? Such impious folly was rebuked by the 
Divine Spirit on Mars' Hill : it has not grown into 
wisdom since. 

Let not the agency of God, then, be overlooked . 
For without a distinct and grateful recognition of the- 
Most High in our unparalleled prosperity, the setting 
apart of this day for Thanksgiving, by so many of the 
States of this Union, is but solemn mockery and athe- 
istic self-exaltation. 

In inviting your attention to 

THE INDICATIONS OF A DIVHSTE PUEPOSE TO MAKE OUR 
COUNTEY A MODEL CHEISTIAN EEPUBLIC, 

I take the attitude not of undoubting conviction,. 
1 >ut of ho23eful inquiry. The two great truths under 
whose light we now proceed, forbid us to regard the 
existence of such a purpose as incredible ; and the' 
indications of the reality of its existence, are too many 
and too strong to be overcome by any visible opposite 
signs. God seems to have designed to render our 
country free and prosperous through the institutions 



god's purpose in our country. 19 

of Christianity ; and tlius a medium of ])lessings to tlie 
AYorld. The history of the past and the intimations of 
the present better harmonize with the supposition, of 
such a purpose than with any other hypothesis. 

With this thousfht in view let us consider 

THE FITNESS OF OUE IIABITATIOJST FOR SUCH A PURPOSE. 

Behold the nol)le land which we call our own. Had 
a delegation of angels from Heaven surveyed the 
whole surface of the earth to find the best place for a 
Christian commonwealth, where could they have found 
another so suitalde as tliis ? Placed between the twf> 
ficreat oceans, and extendiua: from the beautiful border 
of lakes far away to the Mexican Gulf and the regions 
of gold and eternal verdure— thus embracing every 
variety of climate and soil ; its coasts indented with 
excellent harbors ; its surface marked in every direc- 
tion with streamlets and rivers^ and diversified with 
mountains, hills, valleys and plains, full of mineral and 
vegetable riches, it was admirably adapted to be the 
abode of a great nation of Christian freemen. The 
land was almost unoccupied. No Aztec or Peruvian 
empire was here with its pernicious customs and its 
degraded people, to hinder the establishment of good 
institutions, and the few savages dwelling or wandering 
within the bounds of our habitation would not corrupt 
])y their example nor obstruct by their influence or 
power. 

Touching the place selected for this Republic, two 
things deserve especial notice. 



20 god's purpose in our country. 

First, its Spaciousness. This, by rendering tlie land 
clieap, leads an unusually large proportion of the in- 
habitants to become owners of real estate, and thus 
deeply interested in the permanent welfare of the 
country. It tends also — under the influence of Chris- 
tianity — to foster the spirit of true independence 
among the millions. Without reference to the aims of 
'' land-reformers," we should acknowledge the kindness 
and wisdom of the Most High in so ordering it that a 
large majority of the people may be owners of the 
soil. Any nation is in peril of discontent, of demoral- 
ization, and of changes without improvement, where 
the land is owned by a few. 

But this vast amplitude of space would naturally 
be attended with the danger of a distracting diversity 
of sectional interests. Now mark how this evil has 
been obviated. The original settlement of our country 
by separate colonies — the germs of states — was an ai-- 
rangement, not of human forecast, but of Divine 
Providence. It j)i'epared the way for local legislation 
by state governments. 

The interpositions, tooj by which the opj^osite ex- 
tremities of the Union, though becoming more and 
more remote, have been for j^ractical purposes, brought 
nearer and nearer to each other, challenge our grateful 
attention. In 1803, the vast territory of Louisiana 
was acquired, in spite of no slight expressions of alarm 
at so great an extension of the bounds of our habita- 
tion. But at that very time Hobert Fulton w^as far 
advanced in experiments wmcn were to result only 
four years afterwards in the application of a power by 



god's rURPOSE IN OUR COUNTRY. 21 

wliicli floating palaces — ships of vast burden — wDuld 
l)e moved up our great livers, against wind and tide, 
and New Orleans soon be brouglit into tlie neiglibor- 
liood of Pittsburg. 

The more recent extension of our bounds by tlie 
annexation of Texas, California, and other distant 
territories, occurred just after the introduction of Kail- 
Koads, Atlantic-Steam Navigation, and the Telegraph. 
Now, San Francisco is nearer to Washington than 
Albany was in 180G, and soon the shore of the PaciHc 
will be nearer to Plymouth Eock and Bunker-Hill 
tlian the western part of New England was at the time 
of the Revolution. 

Who will deny that these improvements in locomo- 
tion and intercommunication, so occurring, have been 
most opportune ? 

The other thing to be especially noticed of our 
habitation is 

ITS SEPARATI0]Sr, BY THE OCEAjS^, FEOM ALL THE OTHER 
GREAT COUNTRIES OF THE EARTH. 

This aided our fathers greatly in the days of the 
<]olonies, in preserving their rights, and in laying good 
foundations of States ; it enabled them, under the 
smiles of Providence, to achieve their independence ; 
and it has eminently conduced to our welfare since. 
Suppose this nation to have been located in any part 
of Europe during the last sixty years. A large stand- 
ing army would have been always necessary ; taxation 
such as the natives of this country never endured, 
would have distressed us ; in the absence of the means 
of spiritual and intellectual culture, we should have 



22 god's PURrOSE in OUJB COUin'RY. 

lost our mental freedom, and been led to sacrifice 
true liberty and solid prosperity on the altar of a false 
national grandeur ; the lava of the French Revolu- 
tion — whose ashes and cinders were thrown upon 
our shores even across the Atlantic — would have 
rolled red-hot over us ; and if, as a Republic, we 
had survived the fall of Napoleon, the sovereigns of 
the Holy Alliance would have assailed us with their 
eight-hundred-thousand armed mea, terrible from 
the fields of Talavera, Leipsic and Waterloo, instead 
of scowling impotently at us across the ocean. 

Great Britain's Channel, with her matchless navy, 
has served in no small degree to relieve her of the 
dangerous necessity of a large military force at 
home, and thus to render her the freest country in 
the European world. But better far to us has been 
" the great and wide Sea." It has placed us at a 
still greater remove from belligerent neighbors, and 
from the ills of a warlike, burdened and degraded 
people. Steam navigation has indeed of late nar- 
rowed ths Atlantic wonderfully. How have the 
shores of Europe and America approached each 
other since 1775! Then Mr. Burke said in reference 
to a scheme for the representation of the American 
Colonies in Parliament, '^ Perhaps I might be inclined 
to entertain some such thought ; but a great flood 
stops me in my course. Opposuit natura — I cannot 
remove the eternal barriers of the Creation." He 
had just before said: "The ocean remains. You 
cannot pump this dry ; and as long as it continues 
in its present bed, so long all the causes which wea- 
ken authority by distance, will continue." Those 



god's purpose IN" ODK COUNTRY. 2§ 

barriers have proved to be not quite " eternal." 
For though the ocean has not been "pumped" — 
though the "great flood" remains — arrangement^^ 
have already been devised, by which representatives 
might go from this country to the British Parliament 
in less time than some of the very members whom 
he was then addressing, had taken in coming from 
their homes to London. 

It is remarkable, however, that the distance be- 
tween the two continents remained just long enough. 
It continued till after the Revolution ; till the Na- 
poleonic drama was over ; till our institutions had 
had time to take deep root and our national char- 
acter was formed and established ; and till our coun- 
try had been recognized by friends and foes, as one 
of the mightiest powers of the earth. It continued 
during our infancy and youth, and was not thus re- 
moved, until the time had come for us to fulfill more 
efficiently than ever before, our mission of diffusing 
the light of the Gospel over the earth, and the in- 
fluence of our republican example among the nations. 
It is well for us now to be nearer to the rest of the 
world, to look the human family more familiarly in 
tiie face y — and, in respect to some of our faults^ to 
hear more distinctly the lamentations of the friends 
of liberty in Europe, aye and the very taunts and 
jeers of aristocrats and monarchists who feel com- 
forted by our inconsistencies. It will henceforth do 
us no harm to be in a situation both to act and to 
be acted upon more potently in the war of opinions 
and the struggle of influences, with which the liter- 
ary, the political and the religious world is agitated. 



24 god's purpose in our country. 

Thus it is apparent that in respect to the extent 
and location of our habitation, and to the method 
of giving us the benefits without the evils of an ex- 
tended territory, and the advantages of an isolated 
position so long and only so long as it was needful, 
the Most High has directed events as if with the 
purpose of making this land the abode of a free and 
Christian nation. Keeping this purpose still in view, 
we proceed now to consider 

god's time and manner of peopling this country. 

The time chosen for establishing here, those Col- 
onies which were to give character to the Republic, 
was the century beginning in 1620*. This period, 
you will observe, commences a hundred and twenty- 
eight years after the discovery of America. It is 
a remarkable fact that He who " determines the 
times before appointed" to nations, kept our "hab- 
itation" almost entirely unoccupied by any colony 
or association of civilized men for more than a cen- 
tury and a quarter after that discovery. The streams 
of emigration from the Old World flowed swift and 
large to other parts of America during that period, 
but not to this. Happily, indeed, the region to be 
meted out to the original States of this Union, fell 
within the domain of English discovery ; and Brit- 
ish ships, like " guardian giants," passed from time 
to time along the shore. Various attempts of Euro- 
peans to colonize this part of North America result- 
ed with scarcely an exception, in total failure. This 

* Until 1620, the Colon}'- at Jamestown consisted almost entirely of 
men, who intended to return to England. 



god's riJEPOSE IN OUR COUNTRY. 25 

was well for us and for tlie world. The men and 
women to lay the foundations of a Cliristian common- 
wealth, had not then been made ready. The period 
reaching from 1492 to 1620, was a necessary period 
of moral and intellectual preparation. Suppose that 
colonies had ])een established here immediately after 
this continent became known to Europeans. What 
country could have sent out a people fitted for the 
great purpose? England might have sent such as 
bowed low to the sceptre of Henry the Seventh, and 
still lower to the sceptre of Henry the Eighth. Scot- 
land, then the home of superstition and barbarism, 
might have given the New World, minions of despot- 
ism and fierce, untutored clans. Holland, not yet 
Protestant, might have furnished a people who had 
learned to resist the encroachments of the sea, but 
not the tyranny of hierarchs and kings. France 
might have bestowed as stupid and priest-ridden a 
people as she sent to the valley of the St. Lawrence. 
And Spain could have transmitted men and women 
like those wdiose descendents in Mexico and in Central 
and South America, are so much pitied or scorned by 
the civilized world. Germany and the Scandinavian 
countries were then in " the hour and power of dark- 
ness" that preceded the day. The hundred and twen- 
ty-eight years which intervened between the great 
discovery by Columlnis and the landing of the Pilgrims 
on Plymouth-Rock, were years of a grand religious 
and literary revival, of a wonderful ecclesiastical and 
political .levolution. The success of Columbus, fitted 
of itself to awaken the people of Europe to new 
trains of thought and new pursuits, had been preceded 



26 god's prEPOsE in our country. 

by the invention of printing and by an unwonted atten- 
tion to the Greek literature — occasioned by the resort 
to Italy and to other parts of Europe, of scholars who 
had fled from Constantino23le when it was taken by the 
Turks. This avidity in the pursuit of the Greek liter- 
ature, prepared the way for the successful study of 
the New Testament, and thus excited a sense of the 
importance of the Hebrew Scriptures ; whilst the art 
of printing opened a channel for the communication of 
Divine truth to multitudes heretofore inaccessible. 

Seventy-five years after this great invention, sixty- 
four after the fall of the Greek Empire, and twenty- 
five after the discovery of America, Luther blew the 
first trumpet blast of the Eeformation. The stone 
w^as now rolled away from the door of the sepulchre, 
where Christ in the buried Scriptures, had long lain 
hidden from the gi'eat majority in nominal Christen- 
dom. The great Liberator — the eternal Word w^ho 
exalted humanity by becoming the Son of Man — came 
forth to the view of the ignorant, the superstitious, the 
servile, full of grace and truth to make them free 
indeed. His voice was a voice of resurrection in the 
charnel-house of European mind ;|and anon millions 
awoke, who had been blind, deaf, dead to rights, du- 
ties and interests of the highest moment. Men began 
to see that religion is no affair to be committed to 
creatures impiously claiming to be priests — sacrificers 
of the Lamb of God and conscience-keepers of Chris- 
tians — but a thing of the individual soul looking to the 
Most High through the One Mediator. Thus they 
l^egan to realize the right and the responsibility of 
private judgment, and the depravity of the character 



god's purpose in our country. 27 

of man as tlie Gospel finds it, and tlie grandeur of his 
nature as both liis creation and liis redemption, declare 
it. Hence the Reformation as commenced by Luther, 
but far more as carried forward by Calvin and others 
of a like republicanizing faith, operated at once to exalt 
God in human view, and to expel all degrading vene- 
ration of men. It involved a great popular uprising. 
Mountains on the surface of society seemed to sink as 
the valleys were raised. Thrones and hierarchies were 
shaken. In Great Britain, the North of Ireland, Swe- 
den, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Holland, " the 
entrance of God's word" proved on a grand scale its 
ada]3tation to give light — to give understanding unto 
the simple. " The diffusion of light and knowledge"' 
in England " from Edward VI to the Restoration was 
as wonderful", says Coleridge, " as it is praiseworthy, 
and may be justly placed among the most remarkable 
facts of history." Even in 1G20 a great improvement 
had been made in the character especially of the lower 
and middling classes. 

The century following was the period when the 
people whom God was thus training, were to come 
over, bringing in their hearts the principles and exhib- 
iting in their lives the virtues which, under the Divine 
blessing, were to make our country great, prosperous 
and free. How happened it that men and women 
of all the European world, the very best to found a 
Christian commonwealth, were separated from the 
communities where they dwelt and sent to their pre- 
pared habitation. The fact is easily explained. The 
princes and prelates of Europe endeavored to arrest 
the progress of the Reformation by persecution. Dig- 



28 god's purpose in our couisitry. 

nitaries in state and cliurcli who loved place and 
power more than truth and human Tvelfare, turned 
pale at the earthquake-march of revolution ; and the 
visions of a new order of ages when 1 heocracy and 
Democracy would be inaugurated and established, 
alarmed them and made them cruel. 1 he people, of 
all others, the most needed here were not loved there. 
The eaglets were'^tted to come and soar in the light and 
air of skies new and clear ; and their nests were stirred 
up with a violence that drove them forth. Neither 
the limits nor the plan of this discourse will permit a 
description in detail of the cruelties and outrages by 
which so many of the excellent of the earth were 
driven to our shores. The fact itself however — shining 
as it does in the lisrht of other sifmiiicant facts — stri- 
kingly illustrates our theme. 

Our great historian, Bancroft, speaking of the found- 
ers of the first twelve of our States — the twelve whose 
character was destined to shape the character of the 
whole country — says, "Our fathers were not only 
Christians ; they were even in Maryland by a vast 
majority, elsewhere almost unanimously Protestants. 
Now the Protestant reformation — considered in its 
largest influence on politics — was the common people 
awakening to freedom of mind." The first emigrants 
to this country were Divinely chosen from the best 
nations of Europe, and were mostly of the Anglo-Sax- 
on and other branches of the great Germanic family. 

I state a simple historical fact — a fact largely dwelt 
upon even by writers not at all partial to the theologic- 
al views of the great Genevan reformer — when I add 
that in the most flourishing and influential Colonies, 



god's purpose m cue countet. 29 

tliey were chiefly Calviuists. AccordiDgly, they were 
not only zealous for liberty but for those institutions 
which tend to qualify a nation to maintain it ; I refer, 
for example, to the Christian Sabbath ; a learned, able 
and pious ministry of the Gospel ; colleges to educate 
teachers and professional men of every needful des- 
cription ; and last but not least, schools of a high order 
for the mass of the people. In Maslhchusetts as early 
as 1636 "the General Court voted a sum equal to a 
year's rate of the whole Colony towards the erection 
of a College." In the Plymouth Colony in 1642 legal 
provision was made against suffering the " loarbarism" 
to exist in any family of not teaching their children 
and apprentices " perfectly to read the English 
tongue." " Calvinism," says the historian just now 
quoted, "invoked in^-elligence against Satan, tlife great 
destroyer of the human race ; and the farmers and 
seamen of Massachusetts nourished its College with 
corn and strings of wampum, and in every village 
built the free school." The Independents, the Pres- 
byterians, the Puritans all, the Hollanders of Gene- 
van views, and the Huguenots had been trained 
amid influences prompting to profound and lofty 
thought. They had been nurtured under a Divine 
tuition which has made Scotland a luminary to Chris- 
tendom, which revolutionized and aggrandized Eng- 
land, which prepared Holland not only to abide like 
the unconsiimed burning bush, through all the fires 
of her struggle with the terrible might and demon- 
cruelty of Spain, but to fill the world with the mon- 
uments of her learning and her commercial enter- 
prise, and which gave to France not only the names 



30 god's purpose est oue country. 

of Calvin, Farel and Colligni, but myriads of martyr- 
souls, whose loud voice crying from " under the al- 
tar: How long, O Lord, holy, just and true'?" — is 
speeding the day when it shall be changed into a 
song of jubilee, over ecclesiastical tyranny extinct, 
infidelity abhorred and a great nation regenerated. 
On an average the founders of the original states 
of this Union were more intelligent and virtuous by 
far than the mass of the people in any part of Eu- 
rope even at this day. I do not affirm that they 
were free altogether from human infirmit}^, or that 
they were from the first, familiar with all the need- 
ful applications of their own principles. The Prot- 
estant world had then just awaked as from the sleep 
of death. The Lord had spoken the life-giving 
word and Lazarus had come forth from the tomb, 
though with some of his grave-clothes still adhering 
to him. But with such power of life and love of 
free action, he was soon loosed from what was no 
longer his own. The intolerance which our fathers 
had learned in another school and which they al- 
lowed even temporarily in a less degree than the 
rest of the world, was never in accordance with the 
great truths of their creed, and was soon laid 
aside. 

I am here reminded of the boast of Roman Cath- 
olics — the emptiness of which is not so well under- 
stood even among people of other creeds as it ought 
to be — that the first example of toleration in this 
country, was set in Maryland. I would detract no- 
thing from the real merits of Lord Baltimore. But 
it is due to truth to inquire who he was and in what 



god's purpose in our country. 31 

circumstances the famous charter of toleration — so 
called — was granted to him. Lord Baltimore was 
the subject of a Protestant Government. He ob- 
tained his charter of a king who with his privy 
council, had prom'sed to oppose Popery, and the vast 
majority of whose subjects were zealous Protestants ; 
and he obtained it for a colony to consist in part of 
Protestants and to be located in the midst of colo- 
nies who abhorred Romanism. The truth is that 
Lord Baltimore and his Roman Catholic associates 
were themselves the tolerated — not the tolerators. 
Would it, then, have been quite amiable or even 
prudent for him to ask a charter otherwise than tol- 
erant to the religious faith of the very Government 
from which he was seeking it ? If his charter had 
been obtained of the king of Spain or Portugal for 
a colony to be planted in Central or South Ameri- 
ca, it would have been a far less equivocal proof of 
Roman Catholic tolerance. As an individual. Lord 
Baltimore was worthy of high esteem ; and it is 
not unpleasant to know that he was so liberally 
treated by a Protestant government, and that in the 
colonization of this country, some of almost every- 
shade of religious belief came here ; the way being 
thus prepared for a splendid national example of all 
varieties and contrarieties of faith peacefully co- 
existing. Let the Disposer of events be thanked 
for the arrangement that gave us the Calverts and 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton. 

Now shall we deem it accidental that our land 
was peopled thus at the beginning ? — that it remain- 
ed a wilderness until men and women of the right 



32 god's pitkpose in ouk countey. 

character to foand a Christian commonwealth, were 
trained ? — and that when fitted for their noble work 
they were separated from the surrounding popula- 
tions and sent here "? It is more rational after the 
manner of the Psalmist to say : Thou hast brought 
a vine out of Europe and hast planted it. Thou 
preparedst room before it and didst cause it to take 
deep root and it filled the land. Th/e hills were 
covered with the shadow of it and the boughs there- 
of were like the goodly cedars. 

And how shall we construe 

THE FACTS OF OUR COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY 

HISTORY 1 

Was it by mere fortuity that the colonies flour- 
ished with a growth and prosperity which in 1760 
and especially in 1775 excited the admiration of 
British statesmen and of French philosophers ? — that 
neither savage foes nor civilized enemies succeeded 
in attempts to destroy or subjugate them ? — that they 
were* made conscious of their power by the French 
war just before the mother country resolved to tax 
and oppress them ? — that the character of Washing- 
ton w^as formed at the time of need; his precious 
life strangely preserved in the dark day of Brad- 
dock's defeat, and his exalted worth made conspic- 
uous in season to attract the attention of tiie nation 
and prepare them to confide in him in the tremen- 
dous crisis of the Revolution 1 — that Robert Clive, 
the brilliant captor and defender of Arcot, the hero 
of Plassey and ablest general of Europe failed to 
take the command of the British troops sent against 



r,OD's PUKPOSE IX OUIi COUNTRY. 33 

US in that struggle, — perishing by his own hand and 
giving place to the dilatory and blundering Sir Hen- 
ry Clinton ? — that Major Andre in a critical moment 
lost his wits ^and balked the treason of Arnold "? — 
that the envious rivalry of France towards England, 
moved her, though then monarchical, to aid us in 
maintaining such a Declaration of Independence '? 

Let us adore the God of Providence, and love 
the country which He has so cherished and blessed. 
Our fathers devoutly waited upon Him when they 
came into the wilderness for freedom to worship 
Him. They trusted Him in the days when the sav- 
age tribes were terrible and they were weak. They 
sought His interposition with prayer and fasting 
when Great Britain and France were battling for 
empire in North America, and hostile armaments 
were threatening their destruction.* They asked 
His guidance in the times of the Stamp Act and the 
Tea Act ; and they besought His help while they 
echoed from all their hills and valleys and plains, 
the Declaration of Independence. They observed 
days of public humiliation and supplication to avert 
His wrath and seek His favor when calamity and 



* Says Prcs. Dwight : " The destruction of the French armament unchr 
the I)uh9 cV Anville, in the year 1746, ought to be rcrncrr.bercd with grat- 
itude and admiration by evoy inhabitant of this countiy. This fleet con- 
sisted of forty ships of war ; was destined for the destruction of New Eng- 
land ; was of sufficient force to render that destruction, in the ordinary 
progress of things, certain ; sailed from Chcbucto in Nova Scotia, for this 
purpose ; and was entirely destroyed, on the night following a general fast 
throughout New Englaud, by a terrible tempest." — Sermon cxLir. Pres. 
Edwards mentions this with several other thankworthy providencea of his 
limes.— Works, Vol III, 489, 490, N. Y., 18S0. 



34 god's ruKPOSE in our country. 

danger gloomed over the land. Their hearts leaped 
with gratitude to Him when they heard that Bur- 
goyne, with all his army, was captured; and they 
wept tears of devout acknowledgment when the 
flying horsemen shouted at their doors, " Cornwallis 
has surrendered." 

With minds still upon the Divine purpose to make 
our Country a Christian Republic, let us consider 

THE ERA IN THE WORLD's PROGRESS, AT W^HICH THIS 
NATION ENTERED UPON ITS CAREER OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Our fathers of the Revolution acted amid lights 
which a long and ascending series of dispensations 
and epochs had been multiplying and brightening — 
lights eminently fitting their day to be the era of a 
new manifestation of the power of Christianity — 
its power to make nations capable of self-govern- 
ment. For them poets, historians and philosophers 
representing many classes of men and various forms 
of civilization, had written; for them republics, 
ancient and modern, had tried the experiment of 
popular institutions, and empires and kingdoms from 
the days of Nimrod, been sounding out their warn- 
ings; for them the principles of the Civil and the Com- 
mon Law had been elaborated and collected, and a 
great variety of governmental theories been put to 
the proof; for them the Oracles of God had been 
given, the Messiah lived, died and risen, the Hebrew 
Commonwealth flourished and passed away and the 
Church — under her latest dispensation — for more 
than seventeen centuries, declared her lessons and 



gob's purpose in our country. 35 

defied the gates of hell ; for them, in short, the al- 
most six thousand years of a wonderfully varied 
and suggestive past had come and gone, " uttering 
speech" and *' showing knowledge." Nor were our 
fathers, like the revolutionists and law-givers of 
other times and other localities, fatally embarrassed 
by the rubbish of hurtful and inveterate customs. 
On an open field and amid the grand and diversified 
scenery of their secluded but magnificent habitation, 
they could lay political foundations according to the 
dictates of enlightened reason. It has often and 
justly been remarked that the French Revolution 
providentially conferred a great benefit by over- 
throwing institutions inherited from ages of vener- 
ated barbarism. Yet in respect to facilities for true 
progress, a long series of revolutions and changes 
must still take place before the most favored coun- 
try of Europe will be put on a level with this na- 
tion even as it was in 1776. 

The time when this Republic entered upon its 
career of independence was felicitous also in its re- 
lation to the future. An era of great discoveries 
and improvements was just dawning like 

— "another morn 
Klsino; on mid-noon." — 

It was close to the times of Robert Raikes, Noah 
Webster and the outgoings of Popular Education. 
It was near the end of the century when Franklin 
tamed the lightning, and near the beginning of the 
century when Morse was to gift it with tongues and 



36 GOD^S PUKPOSE IN OUK COUNTRY. 

make it a bearer of messages — counting even the 
space-annihilating locomotive slow. It was when 
many new departments of science were coming into 
notice and when all branches of knowledge — how- 
ever barren hitherto — were blossoming unto a won- 
derful fruitage of applications to the arts. It was 
when the deadly influence of infidelity on free in- 
stitutions, was about to be held up for our warning 
in France, and of Popery in the Spanish-American 
Republics. And it was when the adaptation of 
Christianity — ^through the power of its Divine Au- 
thor — to overcome all obstacles to its universal tri- 
umph, was soon to be signally displayed more and 
more in the wonders of grand religious awakenings 
and in the glories of modern missions. Now to 
what do all these indications, looking the same way, 
point? God has joined the present to the past 
and both to the future. Let us therefore endeavor 
to interpret in the light of the past, 

THE SIGNS or THE TIMES IN THEIR BEARINGS ON OUR 
country's FUTURE. 

Let us view passings events in tlieir connection with 
the whole course of the Commonwealtli's history. 
Thus may 

" We see which way the stream of time doth run," 

not judging of the direction of the main current, from 
the counter-movements of mere eddies and ripples,, 
which are apt to appear vast and controlling to those 
who are in the midst of them. Some of God's inter- 
positions in om* own times, in admirable harmony with 



god's purpose IN" OUR COUNTRY. ST 

Ilis supposed purpose to make this nation Cliristian 
and free, liave already been mentioned. Has anytliing 
transpired dm-ing the present century of such tremen- 
dous and far-reaching power of evil as to cast all the 
cheering signs of that purpose, into the shade ? Is it 
surmised that Christianity is %m^ out in ow counlryf 
The surmise is groundless. It is the offspring either 
of a desire to have it so, or of a propensity "unwisely" 
to assume that " the former days w^ere better than 
these." Statistics show that the increase in the number 
of evangelical Christians from the year 1800 to the 
year 1850, was more than ten fold, while the increase 
of the whole population of the United States was less 
than five fold. The material and intellectual resour- 
ces of Christianity have multiplied still faster. Among 
men of education, talent, wealth and high social posi- 
tion, the Bible is more generally revered now than it 
was thirty years ago, and far more than it was sixty 
years since — when the illustrious Dwight entered upon 
the presidency of Yale College. 

Is it said that " a great flood of immigration is roll- 
ing in upon us .^" But when is this occurring ? When 
the Americans are not blind to its tendencies, nor 
asleep to their consequent duties, and when God has 
provided us with the means of warding off its perils, 
and of converting it into a blessing. Look at our 
constantly improving system of Free Schools — regarded 
with increasing favor throughout the country ; at our 
Colleges and Seminaries — cherished in the newer as 
well as in the older States ; at the numerous Societies 
and Agencies for evangelizing and enlightening all the 



38 god's ruKPOSE in our country. 

inliabitaiits of tlie land whether native or foreign — ■ 
sustained with a growing liberality, and attended with 
an encouraging success ; and at the accessibleness of 
the almost entire population to some form, and gener-'' 
ally to every form of evangelical instruction — rendered 
more and more unobstructed every year by all the 
tendencies of American society and of American insti- 
tutions. The very States and Territories which, a short 
time since, seemed to be the most likely to be aban- 
doned to irreligion and barbarism, are calling with 
loud voices and even with liberal hands, for the Gospel 
and for Christian schools. Meanwhile the Most High 
is giving us the gold of California, the riches of silver, 
copper, lead, iron and coal mines, the avails of flourish- 
ing agriculture, encouraged manufactures and spread- 
ing commerce. Is he bestowing this wealth to corrupt 
us and our children ? or to fill the land with light and ' 
knowledge ? 

In calculating the influence of immigration upon the 
future character and welfare of the nation it behooves 
us to make large account of the peculiar type of 
American Christianity. My hope for our country is 
not merely nor mainly in the location, extent and 
excellence of our territorial habitation, and the abun- 
dance of our material resources ; nor in the Anglo- 
Saxon element of the population, even with our 
increasing means of of intellectual culture, our liberty 
of thought and of utterance, and the tendencies of our 
civil institutions. The history of mankind and the 
word of God warn us against such a reliance. My 
confidence is in the religion of the Bible — operating in 



god's I'UBPOSE IN OUR COUNTRY. 39 

such a field, at sucli an era, on siicli minds, throuo-li 
sucli means, and amid sucli institutions. That religion, 
in its revealed truths and principles, is, of course the 
^ same everywhere and always. But Christian charac- 
ter, in different ages and nations, often exhibits no 
small varieties of development. That character, 
viewed as distinctively American, is eminently practic- 
al : — bold, prompt and skilful in using means to convert 
men to its own standard of faith and practice. It is 
highly intellectual, too : — ^fond of tracing out great 
principles, and, because practical, earnest in "proving 
all things," searching, in an atmosphere of light, for 
the proper ends, ways and grounds of action. It is 
remarkably educational also :— erecting colleges, plant- 
ing schools, publishing books, diffusing knowledge, 
and aiming to exercise a plastic, elevating, unitive 
power over all the heterogeneous elements of our pop- 
ulation. Nor is American Christianity losing this 
characteristic. Significant facts prove the reverse. 
The demand for an intelligent ministry, and for well 
qualified teachers at the IS^orth, South, East and West, 
is more and more urgent and uncompromising. Even 
those denominations of Protestants who once depreci- 
ated a liberal educate* on for the work of preaching 
the Gospel, are, to a greater or a less extent, nobly 
acknowledging their error in this respect. Educate, 
EDUCATE, is the motto to the adoption of which near- 
ly all the cii'cumstances and tendencies of American 
piety and American civilization, are prompting, aye, 
driving the great mass of the nation. Hence American 
Christianity — with its accompaniments — is exceedingly 



40 GOU'S PURPOSE IN OUK COUKTKY, 

Americanizing : — i-etentive of its own essential quali- 
ties, and powerful to assimilate all the inhabitants of 
the land to the national type of character and thus to 
one another. Ha>^irig moulded the founders of the 
States, it is still mightier now with its glorious history 
its multij^lying facilities and cheering prospects, to 
fashion those who come under our institutions, after the 
same modeL But what merits especial notice in Amer- 
ican Christianity, is the expectation and frequent en- 
joyment of extraordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit, 
or, as some would say, its revival character. Neither 
the moral nor the political history of the United States 
can be fully written without a large and emphatic notice 
of the great religious awakenings in which mighty 
changes have often been wrought in townships, villages, 
cities and even states. The memorable exercise of the 
Divine Spirit's power in the days of Edwards, Whit- 
field, the Tennents and Samuel Davies, not only increas- 
ed vastly the number of earnest, intelligent Christians 
throughout the Colonies, but contributed immensely to 
prepare the mass of the people to assert and achieve 
their independence. The converts in that series of 
spiritual wonders, were not Tories but Whigs to a man 
and to a woman. Lord Cornwallis in his plan of cam- 
paign in the South, marked the places occupied by 
such persons as, of course, full of rebels : and men of 
a like religious faith, in the Middle and Eastern States, 
were of the same politics. Need I speak of the dis- 
plays of God's saving power which have been granted, 
with increasing frequency, since ? How often have 
times of religious declension been suddenly succeeded 
by times when the attention of multitudes was put un- 



god's rimposE in oue countky. 41 

der arrest, the eyes of tlieir understanding being 
opened to behold wonderful things out of the Divine 
law, and their sonls purified in obeying the truth 
through the Spirit. By these great awakenings the 
number of Christian teachers has been largely in- 
creased ; new fountains of benevolence been opened ; 
the means of a thoroughly humanizing culture vastly 
multiplied ; and the best elements of true civilization 
introduced into circles and localities full of influences 
]:)aneful to the Republic. It is not too much to say 
that another display of the Holy Spirit's power, as 
much greater than that of 1740 or that of 1831 as 
the resources of the Church are now more abundant, 
the statistics of moral evil more clearly brought to 
view, and God's grand cure for sin more demonstra- 
tively illustrated, would put a new face upon society 
throughout the land. Nor are the energies of the 
Holy One exhausted. He is eternal and almighty. 
His promises and the analogies of his providence 
towards this nation should awaken strong hope. Ac- 
cording to a lucid series of inspired announcements, 
times^of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, are 
to be granted yet more and more ; and the fall of that 
system of ecclesiastical despotism whose sway over a 
part of our population, excites dread, is not far off. 
Brighter days for the Church ai;id the world are her- 
alded by signs visible to many an eye on the out-look 
from the watch-tower of prophecy. Let us not despair, 
then, of the moral elevation and the assimilation of the 
people of this country. The obstacles to mental inter- 
course and to mutual knowledge, arising from diversity 
of nationality, language and religious creed, are over- 



42 god's purpose in oue country. 

come liere with a rapidity unparalleled in the world's 
social history. Under the operation of measures like- 
ly to be employed with increasing prudence and phi- 
lanthropy, the mixture of population, promises to be 
the occasion of great intellectual activity and breadth 
of views, and to produce a national character into 
which mainly the best elements of the whole human 
family shall enter, and be moulded under the genial 
influence of a liberty whose parent is Christianity, and 
whose life is virtue and intelligence. 

More than a century ago, Berkeley and Edwards, 
from their different view-points, caught a glimpse of 
the high destination of this country. How faint were 
the intimations of that destination then discernible, 
compared with the evidences which have since ap- 
peared ! All the signs which they beheld have only 
grown more distinct and cheering as time has brought 
other and brighter indications. In the light of these 
.facts, let us now turn our attention for a few moments 
to 

THE DAEKEST SOCIAL EVIL OF OUE COUNTEY. 

In respect to the removal of this evil, I am prepared 
to say that my hopes are far greater than my fears. 
The introduction of slavery in connection with aU the 
peculiar blessings marking our history, is indeed a most 
mysterious event. But let not despondency nor impa- 
tience darken our interpretation of it. To say nothing 
of its relation to the future evangelization of Africa — 
a topic reminding of the vast circles of a Providence 
symbolized by " rings" of ever-moving " wheels, so high 
that they are dreadful" — and to speak of its connection 



god's pukpose in otjk coujrrRY. 43 

simply with the Divine purpose towards our own 
country, I venture to suggest that one of the ends for 
which shivery was suffered to be introduced here, was 
to try the heart of the nation. Some form of trial, 
ever since the j)lanting of the tree of knowledge of 
good and evil in Eden, has accompanied the grant of 
blessings to man. As a nation, we have declared as 
self-evident, the truth that " all men are created equal." 
To test our sincerity, what has the Disposer of events 
done ? He has placed among us, men, not of the high 
Norman class, nor of the Celtic or Sclavoniau race, 
but of the outcast Ethiopian variety ; men, to regard 
whom as equals, we must fall back upon first principles 
and keep fresh in view the grand truths which lie at 
the foundation of our political system. Hence we are 
ever driven to the study of human rights, not as a 
pastime, not as an exercise ending in wordy display, 
but as a labor taking hold on our national life and 
destiny, and requiring in us, all the strength of settled 
principle and living faith. The Father of the sj)irits 
of all flesh, seems to be saying to every American 
citizen : " Dost thou believe that all men are created 
equal? Then show thy faith by thy works towards this 
despised people." In no other country under the sun 
cOuld slavery appear so hatefully anomalous as it does 
here contrasted with the institutions and exposed to 
the lights of a fi'ee, practical, all-illuminating Chris- 
tianity, and of a democratic-republican confession of 
political faith ; and I trust that He who has ordered 
the cu'cumstances of om^ trial so favorably, will give 
us grace to pass through it without fatal disaster. The 
signs of the times suggest anything but despair. 



44 god's I'UKPOSE IN OUE OOUNTEY. 

The Bible, the conscience of the moral universe 
and the prayers of all who say " Thy will he done in 
earth as it is in heaven," are against slavery. The liv- 
ing literature of the world — in the books, the speech- 
es, the essays, the h3^mns and songs which the thrilled, 
responsive heart of Christendom will not permit 
to die — is freedom's voice. The imperishable me- 
morials of prophets, reformers and sainted philan- 
thropists who projected themselves far into the fu- 
ture, pioneering the world by noble thoughts and 
deeds, are helping to swell into an irresistible flood, 
the current of influences hostile to oppression. The 
most honored names of the American heroic age — 
names that shine " as pure stars fixed there in the 
firmament at which the great and high of all ages 
kindle themselves," are recorded against slavery. 

In the meantime the rapid increase of free pop- 
ulation and the course of emigration, are against it. 
The economical, educational and social interests of 
the nation are against it ; and some of the very vi- 
ces which it fearfully fosters, are hastening its over- 
throw. Even things which men supposed would 
strengthen it, have been turned against it : — the an- 
nexation of Texas, awakening a hostility to it not 
easily allayed; the acquisition of California, result- 
ing providentially and most unexpectedly in the ad- 
dition of a Free State ; the passage of the Fugitive 
Slave bill, greatly increasing the anti-slavery feeling 
of the North, and now denounced even in South 
Carolina as worse than useless to slaveholders ; and 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, already re- 
.garded by men of all parties, as fraught with death 



god's purpose m our country. 45 

rather than life to the institution which seems ready, 
more and more, to provoke the opposition of heaven 
and earth. 

Nor ought we to forget that there are many in 
the Slave States who are nobly endeavoring, to the 
extent of their ability, to Christianize and befriend 
those who are held in bonds. More has been done 
within the last thirty years at the South as well as 
at the North, for the elevation of the colored pop- 
ulation than had been effected in a century before. 

The evils of slavery can be checked and removed 
without violating the Constitution or dissolving the 
Union. As to the Constitution — it should be re- 
membered that its framers, as well from the South 
as the North, regarded slavery as an evil soon to 
pass away ; and they were unwilling even to name 
it in the great, organic law of the land. The artic- 
les in that instrument relating to slavery, were 
evidently intended modestly to cover it, till it 
should die. Their own statement of their views 
and aims, proves that they had no thought of ma- 
king the Constitution itself, a formidable fortress for 
the protection and extension of the institution which 
they denounced, — a fortress overlooking and, with 
ceaseless ^display of fire and thunder, endangering 
the very temple of liberty which they sought to 
guard and perpetuate. 

The people of this country, by a vast majority, 
will cling to the Union. The Colonial and Revo- 
lutionary fathers, the old altars to liberty at Bunker- 
Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown, and the dust at Mt. 



46 god's pukpose in ouk country. 

Vernon, are the inheritance of the North and the 
South, of the East and the West, and are strong to 
keep us one. The rail-roads traversing the whole 
land and making all the inhabitants thereof near 
neighbors, are ribs of iron binding the States togeth- 
er ; and the Mississippi river is a perpetual veto of 
attempts to dissolve the Union. The great North- 
West, with its millions of freemen, will never permit 
the mouth of that river to be held by a foreign 
power. 

Such are the signs hung out from Heaven to 
cheer and direct us, reminding of high privileges 
and momentous duties. The friends of religious 
and civil liberty throughout the world, have a right 
to look to us for an example which shall rain eman- 
cipating influences on the nations of the earth. 
Shall they look in vain ? Heaven forbid ! If 
our country, so located and so "peopled, so happy in 
its time of colonization and in its era of indepen- 
dence, so protected against perils and so cherished 
with benign interpositions, so provided with the 
means of moral and intellectual culture, and so 
favored with effusions of the Holy Spirit, is not to 
be, more and more. Christian, free and great — then 
" the handwriting abroad on the sky" means less than 
it seems to promise. No other commonwealth was 
ever so favorably situated. Examples of fallen re- 
publics, however numerous and however full of warn- 
ings against idolatry, atheism, hypocrisy, supersti- 
tion, covetousness, ambition and sensuality, fail to 
evince that this country, with its Christian institu- 



god's puepose in our country. 47 

tions and educational appliances, and with its grand 
peculiarities of history and of prospect, is destined 
to the same end. This world's future is not to be 
a mere repetition of its past. The powers and in- 
fluences of the Kingdom of Christ, are abroad in 
the earth, forbidding that the reign of moral dark- 
ness and ruin, shall be perpetual. The history of 
this world in its ultimate purport, is the history of 
Redemption; and our place on the chart of time 
and our part in the drama of Deliverance is unlike 
the place or part of any other nation. Our country 
started on its course in an auspicious day and under 
an auspicious sky. The Ages seem to have come with 
their gifts and salutations to the new Republic, like 
the wise men from the hoary East, hailing the 
advent of Him on whose reign better times were 
waiting. Those who with their prayers and tears 
and blood, laid the foundations on which it is our 
privilege to build, were men of faith; and they com- 
pass us about to-day as a cloud of witnesses, bidding 
us labor in hope. And a Greater — even He whose 
truth is to make all nations free — is saying to our 
whole American Zion, Arise, Shine. 



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